Tesco could open 750 new convenience stores in Thailand over medium term

[the guest]

Don't get all excited, you'll be struggling to find anything remotely "British" in these stores. They only cater for the Thai economy.

[poohy]

34 minutes ago, Pib said:

Correction:  That why the Mrs "tells you" to walk 5 steps behind when shopping. 

 

When the Thai wife and I are out shopping for certain things in local markets and we know an item we are interested is at a certain store, she sometimes tells me to stay out of sight for a little while until she initially looks at the item and negotiates a price.   Then I come in so the wife and I can decide whether we really want the item and continue price negotiations. She does this sometimes because she knows if the shop owner sees a farang the starting price can often be higher....just can't get it as low.   

 

 

Spot on ! same here

Also Mrs Poohy goes out shopping in old clothes no gold, looking like a tramp(homeless person for none Brits) and good god does she haggle!

[marcusarelus]

4 hours ago, hotchilli said:

The reason the agricultural economy is crashing is because the large western mega-stores kill the farmers to get the cheap prices into the stores.

I'd rather see Thai entrepreneurs opening Thai/Asian businesses into Thailand rather than impoting western stores who will only kill the local markets & small businesses who actually employ more more eople!

The agricultural economy is definitely not crashing.  Farmers are getting more productive and it takes less people to produce more crops.  The market is skewed to benefit Thailand and Thai businesses as it is.  Thais can compete with foreign companies or buy franchisees.  Thai people would rather work for higher wages at Lotus or Ford than low paying no benefit mom and pop operations.  

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

8 hours ago, madmen said:

Great, I live lower sukhumvit where stores like villa market are ripping of farang so now I just order from tesco online , a fraction of the cost of villa market and tops

 

Ya, and a good majority of the time, Tesco Online either doesn't have the items they show in stock on their website, or they end up trying to deliver different items instead as substitutes. Without any advance notice to the customer. Not to mention that a good part of the time their delivery drivers tend to show up hours outside of their scheduled delivery times.

 

I regard them as a largely worthless, unresponsive, non-customer friendly operation.  Villa Market's delivery operations out of their Suk Soi 33 HQ, in contrast, tend to operate nearly flawlessly.

 

[LomSak27]

3 hours ago, habanero said:

4 hours ago, 30la said:

Thailand is the America of the 20th century.
about 12,000 7/11, about 1,583 Tesco, about 100 Makro, about 700 Big C, about 1,200 Family Mart, and ... and ... and
Star Bucks, McDonalds, KFC, Swensens, Makro, 7/11, Family Mart, Watson and many others.
You are covering your beautiful country with foreign businesses, it is practically a sell-out of the country!

America, has no Tesco's, no Makro's, No Big C's, and No Family Marts and only one Swensen's in San Francisco. No Watsons. 

What are you talking about?

 

 

You are talking reality over an IMAGE, something that never goes over big here on Thaivisa, let alone Thailand.  

 

I sure wish they did have a Costco though.   

[Dumbastheycome]

54 minutes ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

They bought out Lotus years ago.

 

It's all Tesco now I think.

Ok. Thanks.

[geoffbezoz]

57 minutes ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

Tesco is wholly foreign owned by Tesco PLC I believe. They are not subject to the same rules smaller businesses are.

 

There are some Thais on the board though. 

 

https://members.bccthai.com/bcct/asp/corpdetail.asp?CorpID=194

Operated soley by a Thai company  !!

 

 

[arithai12]

2 hours ago, Benroon said:

That's why you get your Mrs to walk 5 steps in front of you when shopping

I reckon that not being married to a Thai lady and being charged double prices at the market is still cheaper than being married to a Thai lady, thank you very much.

[SunsetT]

5 hours ago, observer90210 said:

Good initiative....time to stop the current stores selling farang food and extorting customers with cheating prices....

Even when they get some farang food in they dont advertise it so we dont know they have it. I usually find some on the reduced trolley and buy some, but then when I look for it on the shelves next time, because no one bought it the 1st time, they dont stock it again..........????!

[from the home of CC]

worst grocery chain in the world..

[Vacuum]

5 hours ago, Sauc said:

I try to support the local Thai economy by shopping in my local wet market.  But I end up paying more than I would in a western supermarket. I tell my landlord how much I pay, he pays half. The owners of the stalls just see me as a walking dollar sign, not the nice farang who has been shopping there for the last 3 years. 

After shopping there for 3 years you should know how much to pay.

[Vacuum]

5 hours ago, ChrisKC said:

When market stallholders cheat me, I don't go there again!

How can they cheat you? I always ask for the price before I buy something.

[observer90210]

24 minutes ago, SunsetT said:

Even when they get some farang food in they dont advertise it so we dont know they have it. I usually find some on the reduced trolley and buy some, but then when I look for it on the shelves next time, because no one bought it the 1st time, they dont stock it again..........????!

then where to buy good farang food in Thailand, fresh and cheap ? which outlet is a good one that does not cheat the foreigners ?

[geoffbezoz]

20 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

worst grocery chain in the world..

And you therefore must have shopped at them all around the world !!!! Must be a lifetime pursuit for you.  How did you find the supermarkets in Kazakhstan and Russia ? too your liking, full of cheap western foods ?  Or TST in Port Moresby ?

[khunPer]

5 hours ago, 30la said:

Thailand is the America of the 20th century.
about 12,000 7/11, about 1,583 Tesco, about 100 Makro, about 700 Big C, about 1,200 Family Mart, and ... and ... and
Star Bucks, McDonalds, KFC, Swensens, Makro, 7/11, Family Mart, Watson and many others.
You are covering your beautiful country with foreign businesses, it is practically a sell-out of the country!

"Foreign business"?

To my knowledge there are about 2,000 Family Marts now, a Japanese franchise, and the Thai shops are purely Thai owned by same branch of the Central Group (family business) that owns Top Supermarkets, Central Group also owns department stores abroad in Asia and Europe; Makro is owned by CP Group, (they bought it a few years ago), and the CP branch CP All owns the Thai 7-Eleven, and the about 12,000 convenient stores, under a trademark license, together with the 7-Eleven franchise for Cambodia, Vietnam, and China, and furthermore CP owns the Lotus chain in Hong Kong, which wasn't sold to Tesco together with a majority of shares Thailand's Lotus stores (CP is still shareholder); and BigC is a SET registered Thai plc, founded by Central Group (yes Family Mart and Central malls), and they also own BigC in Laos and Vietnam, minor shareholder French Groupe Casino sold their last shares to the Central-family a few years ago; so without checking the company set-up and ownership of the remaining brand names, it still seems like more Thai business than foreign, however most, but not all, brands as franchise or brand-license...????

[from the home of CC]

1 minute ago, geoffbezoz said:

And you therefore must have shopped at them all around the world !!!! Must be a lifetime pursuit for you.  How did you find the supermarkets in Kazakhstan and Russia ? too your liking, full of cheap western foods ?  Or TST in Port Moresby ?

if you don't think this is a terrible store you must do a lot of slumming..

[khunPer]

Tesco-Lotus, the Thai branch of Tesco, seems like its going to be the lifebelt of British Tesco plc...????

[geoffbezoz]

2 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

if you don't think this is a terrible store you must do a lot of slumming..

In other words you outlandish statement that they are the worst in the world is based on personal prejudice and ignorance of other countries supermarkets because you simply could not answer my questions.

 

"And you therefore must have shopped at them all around the world !!!! Must be a lifetime pursuit for you.  How did you find the supermarkets in Kazakhstan and Russia ? too your liking, full of cheap western foods ?  Or TST in Port Moresby ? "

 

And if you consider shopping at Tesco is slumming it then yes I do, but it is not out of ignorance and prejudice that you have shown, rather by preference and store availability.

[Vacuum]

3 hours ago, Benroon said:

That's why you get your Mrs to walk 5 steps in front of you when shopping

Lol, won't help when they see a farang following 5 steps behind...

 

[from the home of CC]

2 minutes ago, geoffbezoz said:

In other words you outlandish statement that they are the worst in the world is based on personal prejudice and ignorance of other countries supermarkets because you simply could not answer my questions.

 

"And you therefore must have shopped at them all around the world !!!! Must be a lifetime pursuit for you.  How did you find the supermarkets in Kazakhstan and Russia ? too your liking, full of cheap western foods ?  Or TST in Port Moresby ? "

 

And if you consider shopping at Tesco is slumming it then yes I do, but it is not out of ignorance and prejudice that you have shown, rather by preference and store availability.

Even their imported goods are substandard, just don't how they thrive except that people that shop there wouldn't know good food from garbage. Never wanted to go to Russia or down under, never been on my list.

[madmen]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Ya, and a good majority of the time, Tesco Online either doesn't have the items they show in stock on their website, or they end up trying to deliver different items instead as substitutes. Without any advance notice to the customer. Not to mention that a good part of the time their delivery drivers tend to show up hours outside of their scheduled delivery times.

 

I regard them as a largely worthless, unresponsive, non-customer friendly operation.  Villa Market's delivery operations out of their Suk Soi 33 HQ, in contrast, tend to operate nearly flawlessly.

 

I find they tend to come up to one hour early but rarely late but it does happen.

There is a Massive price hike using villa up to 200% mark up. Here are some product I buy a lot

 

Pork Belly Villa 125B  baht for 300 gram. = 416 baht per kilo

Tesco same item                                   = 165 baht per kilo

 

Broccoli villa          (import)    = 196 baht per kilo

Broccoli Tesco        (import)    = 62  baht per kilo                           

[from the home of CC]

13 minutes ago, khunPer said:

Tesco-Lotus, the Thai branch of Tesco, seems like its going to be the lifebelt of British Tesco plc...????

RIP

[sambum]

7 hours ago, marcusarelus said:

They provide stable long term employment for Thai people as the economy changes from agricultural to industrial.  Same thing happened in the West.  Less people can produce more food on the farms so employment needs to be provided for the displaced workers.  

Good point! As long as the jobs are taken by Thais and not "immigrants" doing the job for half the wages!  

[Hoppyone]

8 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Yeah great idea... build hundreds of western stores so you can buy all the things you loved so much at home

why not just transform Asia into a western copy town.

I came here for the change, not interested in turning it into what I left behind!

Well said

[dave moir]

8 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Yeah great idea... build hundreds of western stores so you can buy all the things you loved so much at home

why not just transform Asia into a western copy town.

I came here for the change, not interested in turning it into what I left behind!

A lot of westerners are packing up and leaving Thailand so I would think it a waste anyway opening a load of Tesco's! Far rather open a load of Chinese supermarkets for the hoards of Chinese that are supposedly coming!

[geoffbezoz]

1 minute ago, dave moir said:

A lot of westerners are packing up and leaving Thailand so I would think it a waste anyway opening a load of Tesco's! Far rather open a load of Chinese supermarkets for the hoards of Chinese that are supposedly coming!

I'll let you into a secret - Tesco Lotus stock is 99.7% aimed at the local Thai consumer market. That's why so many Thai's use their local Tesco Lotus Express stores.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, madmen said:

I find they tend to come up to one hour early but rarely late but it does happen.

There is a Massive price hike using villa up to 200% mark up. Here are some product I buy a lot

 

Pork Belly Villa 125B  baht for 300 gram. = 416 baht per kilo

Tesco same item                                   = 165 baht per kilo

 

Broccoli villa          (import)    = 196 baht per kilo

Broccoli Tesco        (import)    = 62  baht per kilo                           

 

The price also relates to what exactly you're buying and getting.

 

We buy broccoli also at home. Typically, the "imported" broccoli that Tesco sells is from China with all its health/pesticide risks and issues. The imported broccoli Villa often sells is coming from Australia.

 

They're both broccoli. But in my book, broccoli from China is probably worse than Thai grown broccoli, which is sold here.... And I have no doubt that China vegetables are going to be sold cheaper here than other imports.  However, I won't be the one buying them.

 

[madmen]

6 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

The price also relates to what exactly you're buying and getting.

 

We buy broccoli also at home. Typically, the "imported" broccoli that Tesco sells is from China with all its health/pesticide risks and issues. The imported broccoli Villa often sells is coming from Australia.

 

They're both broccoli. But in my book, broccoli from China is probably worse than Thai grown broccoli, which is sold here.... And I have no doubt that China vegetables are going to be sold cheaper here than other imports.  However, I won't be the one buying them.

 

You have a link for the China info ? I tried googling but came up with nothing. It would make sense hard to imagine they are making a profit at 65 baht if from oz

However Im not convinced Villa buy from Oz either and are enjoying big profits from China as well

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

11 minutes ago, madmen said:

You have a link for the China info ? I tried googling but came up with nothing. It would make sense hard to imagine they are making a profit at 65 baht if from oz

However Im not convinced Villa buy from Oz either and are enjoying big profits from China as well

 

Usually at both store chains, when they have imported veggies, it typically will say what country they're coming from on the product/price label, sometimes only in TH, sometimes also in EN.

 

[johng]

I hope they can re-stock my favourite biscuits....their own brand shortcake